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Chapter of ICAI LONDON, June 3: A new chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has been opened here to give .........more TELCO drives commercial vehicles sales towards negative territory NEW DELHI, June 3: Economic slowdown coupled with depressed market conditions drove commercial vehicles sales towards negative....more CSE
will ask members KOLKATA, June 3: The Calcutta Stock Exchange would ask all its member brokers to square their outstanding positions by July two as recommended by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).....more MUMBAI, June 3: Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in equities for the trading week ended on June ........more |
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Centre releases SHIMLA, June 3: The Centre has released more than rs 6.52 crore to Himachal Pradesh for "food for work" programme which envisages gainful.....more FIIs,
MFs show MUMBAI, June 3: The Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and Mutual Funds (MFs) showed divergent trend for invesment in equities in May with.......more Corporatisation- new mantra of Bollywood NEW DELHI, June 3: Indian film producers now earn as much abroad as from within the country thanks to the Indian diaspora......more Music-making
HAMBURG, June 3: Imagine being able to compose like Beethoven, just once. Or like Johann Sebastian Bach. or Even Oasis. That’s the dream of .....more |
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TELCO drives commercial vehicles sales towards negative territory NEW DELHI, June 3: Economic slowdown coupled with depressed market conditions drove commercial vehicles sales towards negative territory in April 2001 mainly due to a drop in sales of market leader, Tata Engineering (TELCO). Total sales fell by 9.24 per cent at 7,925 vehicles over 8,658 units sold in April last year, data compiled by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed. Sales of Medium and Heavy (M&H) commercial vehicles, which comprised over 60 per cent of the total industry sales, increased by a modest 4.3 per cent at 5,417 units over 5,193 units sold in the year-ago month. However, Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) performed poorly with sales declining by 27.6 per cent at 2,508 units in the review month as compared to 3,465 units in the same month last year. Market leader TELCO posted a 2.9 per cent dip at 3,636 units over 3,745 vehicles sold in the month-on-month period. The Hinduja group flagship Ashok Leyland sold 1,781 m&h vehicles during April 2001, a rise of 25 per cent over 1,424 units sold in the same month last year. Hindustan Motors did not manage to sell a single vehicle in the M&H category. The company had sold 24 units in April 2000. In the LCV segment, TELCO’s sales dipped by 31.7 per cent at 1,297 units in April this year over 1,901 units sold in the same month last year. Sales of Mahindra and Mahindra declined by 14.9 per cent at 247 units month-on-month as against 17 units. Ashok Leyland’s LCV sales jumped by 70.3 per cent at 27 units in April 2001. The company had sold only eight vehicles last year. Eicher Motors recorded a 17.20 per cent rise at 401 LCVs over 332 units sold in April 2000. Eicher had already announced plans to enter the heavy vehicle segment this year. Sales of Swaraj Mazda increased by 19.9 per cent at 376 units in the LCV segment over 301 units sold in the year-ago month. Bajaj Tempo however, posted a 52.3 per cent dip in sales at 160 units in April 2001 as compared to 306 units sold in the same month last year. (PTI) |
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CSE will ask members to square their outstanding position KOLKATA, June 3: The Calcutta Stock Exchange would ask all its member brokers to square their outstanding positions by July two as recommended by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). "We will issue a notice on Monday asking all members to square their outstanding positions by July two as per SEBI order," CSE’s Executive Director Tapas Datta told PTI. The exchange did not have any carry forward mechanism for its rolling segment. Developing the automated lending and borrowing mechanism platform for it would cost about Rs 25 lakh. However, there was not enough time to develop the platform, Datta said. The SEBI at its meeting on May 14 had decided to ban all deferral products or badla variants from July two, but had set September 3 as the deadline for liquidating all outstanding positions. The September three, deadline was meant for only those stock exchanges which had albm and rolling settlement, but for exchanges like CSE and others July two was the deadline. Many in the CSE circle were, however, optimistic that the deadline would be extended to September three considering that the exchange had huge carry forward volume. There would be no price bands on individual stocks from july two in rolling settlement and the market regulator would announce a scheme for implementing market wide index based circuit breakers. SEBI Chairman D R Mehta had said permission would be granted for introduction of options on individual scrips from July two. Introduction of other derivative products would be considered later. (PTI) |
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MUMBAI, June 3: Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in equities for the trading week ended on June one. FIIs purchased equities in Indian market worth Rs.156.1 crore and sold worth Rs 189.3 crore turning into net sellers, according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India. They were net buyers for the first three days during the last week but towards the end they sold heavily. The net sales by FIIs on May 31 and June 1 were worth Rs. 112.3 and Rs.77 crore respectively. Mutual funds also continued to be net sellers at Rs. 187.70 crore during the period from May 28 to May 31. They have been net sellers in equities since January 2001 and till now their gross purchases and sales have been Rs 6506.60 and Rs.9772.66 crore. (UNI) |
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Centre releases Rs 6.52 cr to HP for food for work prog SHIMLA, June 3: The Centre has released more than rs 6.52 crore to Himachal Pradesh for "food for work" programme which envisages gainful employment to the needy and downtrodden and food to them. All the 12 districts of the state have been covered under this scheme and each district allocated Rs 54.35 lakhs. The State Government has already sanctioned Rs ten crore to the rural development department to start work under this scheme, according to an official spokesman here. The Central Government has allotted 11,549 metric tonnes foodgrains free of cost to the state under the programme launched this year. Competent authorities decide upon works to be undertaken under the programme and deputy commissioners give administrative approvals for such works. The spokesman said that unutilised amount under the programme would be utilised by sanctioning more works by competent authorities. The spokesman said the works were being be executed through gram panchayats or other agencies in accordance with guidelines under the programme. Particular quantity of foodgrains are released to persons against particular works through fair price shops located near the panchayats where the work is being executed. Under the scheme Rs 21 are being paid in the form of foodgrains and Rs 30 in cash in the non-tribal areas where the minimum wages are Rs 51. In tribal areas where the minimum wages are Rs 65, Rs 25 are given in the form of foodgrains and Rs 40 in cash under the scheme. Apart from this edibles are being provided under the "targeted public distribution scheme" at cheap rates to those families who are living below poverty line. As many as 79,632 families, who have been selected under the "integrated rural development programme" are given wheat, rice and salt at the cheaper rates. (UNI) |
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FIIs, MFs show divergent trends in equities for May MUMBAI, June 3: The Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and Mutual Funds (MFs) showed divergent trend for invesment in equities in May with the former being net buyers at Rs 1,045.6 crore (USD 223.5 million). MFs were net sellers in equities at Rs 478.22 crore in the reporting month. However, the trend was reversed in debt as FIIs were net sellers at Rs 369.6 crore (USD 79 mn) while MFs were net buyers at Rs 1,141.80 crore, according to data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The foreign funds were net buyers on 16 trading days in equities and net sellers on 14 days in debt. MFs remained net sellers in equities and debt on 19 and five days respectively. On May 18, FIIs bought equities worth Rs 213 crore while offloading to the tune of Rs 69.5 crore, thus making the highest net purchases in may at Rs 143.5 crore (USD 30.7 mn). FIIs were also net buyers of Rs 138.7 crore (USD 29.6 mn) and Rs 111.5 crore (USD 23.8 mn) on May seven and May 15 respectively, SEBI data said. MFs, on the other hand, recorded their highest net sales in equities on May 29 of Rs 69.09 crore. FIIs were net sellers on the equity front for only six trading days with the highest being on May 31 at Rs 112.3 crore (USD 24 mn) followed by 57.2 crore (USD 12.2 mn) on May eight, SEBI said. For the trading week ended June one, FIIs were net sellers in equities and debt at Rs 33.2 crore (USD 7.1 mn) and Rs 134.2 crore (USD 28.7 mn) respectively. On the debt side the, FIIs indulged only in offloading on four days while no transaction was conducted on May 29. They sold debt instruments worth Rs 96.5 crore (usd 20.6 mn) on May 30, the highest for the month. The data available on MFs for the four days beginning may 28 shows that they were net sellers in both, equities and debt at Rs 187.7 crore and Rs 25.79 crore respectively. (PTI) |
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Corporatisation- new mantra of Bollywood NEW DELHI, June 3: Indian film producers now earn as much abroad as from within the country thanks to the Indian diaspora spread across the world which ensures a captive audience of 30 million outside the country. Earlier producers used to release just three to four prints outside India, but now they release 40 prints. Today people in Boston, New York, Washington, San Francisco, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston have a population ready to spend eight dollars each just to see an Indian film. The writer spoke to the well-known producers down south G Venkateshwaran and others like Subhash Ghai, Ramesh Sippy, Mahesh Bhatt, Shekhar Kapur, Yash Chopra and last but not the least Shahrukh Khan about bollywood’s latest mantra-corporatisation. According to the Venkateshwaran, "the star is now passe. It is the subject which is the hero of a film and the music which is the heroine now." Both Roja and Bombay made in Tamil and dubbed in Hindi prove the point. The success of Kandukondein Kandukondein (Tamil) has further boasted the market for Tamil films with subtitles in english. "And for this we have to thank Aishwarya, because she was promised by Rajeev Menon that Kandukondein Kandukondein would not be dubbed in Hindi when she was signed for the film," Venkateshwaran added. The producer of the Tamil film, friends has proved that you do not need a distributor to release your film. He released his film on his own and after the film ran successfully for 50 days, he sold it to distributors for 6.5 crores. Audio rights also fetch astronomical prices now. Maniratnam’s next tamil film has fetched rs three crore for audio rights which includes the Telugu dubbed version’s audio rights too. The audio rights of Padayappa, Rajanikant starrer, fetched Rs 2.5 crores just for Tamil. Though we used to get just a lakh or two for satellite rights earlier, recently the satellite rights for Padayappa fetched Rs 2.5 crores. Hero cycles and coke have committed Rs 4.5 crores to Subhash Ghai for his yaadein as sponsors. Because the cooperate sectors realised that it was cheaper than KBC which demands Rs 2.5 lakhs or Tehelka which demands Rs 5 lakhs per ten seconds, Coke and Pepsi had almost covered the cost of making both Taal and Mohabbatein. Surrogate advertising is the norm of the day. Tomorrow never dies was made almost entirely with the money sponsors like Smirnoff, Reid & Taylor and Omega had given for in house advertising. According to Subhash Ghai, the internet is all set to be an important platform to promote movies. "I cannot make Taal again. Nor can Yashji make Mohabbatein. We have got to move on and make newer products. Now we have several avenues to recover our revenue and the risk factor has become less. If you are organized, you can easily recover your investment even before you set out to release your film. Today at Mukta arts our library itself is worth Rs several crores though even ten years back, it did not have any worthwhile value." Ghai adds, "for the last 54 years, the indian film industry has been struggling to interact with the Government but it has always been isolated. Thirty years ago when I came from the Pune Film Institute, i was highly impressed by AVM, Rajkamal. "They had the skill to organize their house. I wondered how I’d survive as an independent film producer and decided to have an optimum balance between talent and skill to organise. I learnt many things from N N Sippy. I could see the whims of the stars and was pained to see producers going haywire and out of default I launched Mukta Arts and turned a producer with Karz. "Film-making is a job of creative people who need space and time and do not like parameters. I started Mukta Arts because I was impressed by the corporte culture. I could successfully make films for the last 21 years by building up an attitude. I find that there is a new revenue model for the last five years. "Earlier, I used to make one film in two years. Now I make three in a year. If you want to survive, you have got to obey this culture. No more will the actors rule the industry. The reason we went in for insurance is that we wanted to enforce discipline. The studio culture is going to come back once again." Shekhar Kapur however subscribes to an entirely different view. According to him, ours is the most resilient industry in the whole world which has survived marketing by hollywood which has almost wiped out the Italian, Spanish and Japanese film industries. "We have got to tread very carefully. Today every one wants to jump into the bandwagon. We as an industry can survive on our own. We do not need IDBI or insurance. We have survived cable, censorship, piracy, black money and the underworld. It is the big hits that have become the mainstay which keeps us going. "If you observe, 90 per cent of the hits come from producers-directors because they do not leave any stone unturned and because they are truly independent and would not have survived the studio system of hollywood. Sholay would not have been the same if ramesh sippy had gone to a bank with his script for finance. Ghai could not have made films if he had gone to the banks because he reshoots 30 per cent of his films," Shekhar said. (PTI) |
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Music-making programmes for PC HAMBURG, June 3: Imagine being able to compose like Beethoven, just once. Or like Johann Sebastian Bach. or Even Oasis. That’s the dream of many musically talented computer users. That’s also why during the early days of the home computer, one of the simplest programmes was also among the most beloved: the sequencer. The programme’s computerized keyboard could mimic a wide range of instruments and allow the user to composed tunes right on the computer. Today, music programs offer much, much more - so much, in fact, that virtually an entire recording studio can fit on your hard drive. Two new entrants into the music-making software arena stretch the boundaries of what software in this category can do. The programme Cubasis VST, from Steinberg, based in Hamburg, Germany. The software allows users to record, rework, and mix music without ever picking up an instrument. It’s even capable of both recording digital audio material and reworking MIDI data. The meaning of the term "MIDI" is explained to the user in the accompanying overview handbook. MIDI is short for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface", standard adopted by the electronic music industry for controlling devices, such as synthesizers and sound cards, that emit music. The advantage of MIDI control is significant: by adjusting a few simple settings, sounds can be reproduced to resemble anything from a dampened tuba to the soft stroking of a violin, according to the wishes of the musician. Advanced users might be more interested in cubasis VST’s expansion of the so-called GM (General MIDI) standards, which are used to support devices from Keyboard Makers Roland (GS) or Yamaha (XG). The professional appearance of the software is both its strength and its weakness: on the one hand, knowledgeable users will immediately feel at home, since instrument controls are depicted exactly like the original. On the other hand, beginners will be terrified at first if they attempt to explore the somewhat highly complicated functions of the programme. Those who make an effort to study the user’s instructions and the software will find that the home PC can suddenly be used to produce up to 48 audio channels and 64 MIDI tracks - the same as used with an orchestra. Also worthy of praise is the function that checks the computer’s settings, in particular that of the sound card, when the programmes started. In the event the speakers refuse to make noise, this helps considerably with troubleshooting. After a piece is composed using cubasis vst, the song can then be honed using the accompanying "Wave Lab Light 3.01" software. Another included programme "Master unit" burns the piece onto a CD. The entire software packet costs around 100 dollars. This summer Steinberg will release a version for apple computers. Magix Entertainment (www.Magix.Com) offers another compelling product for amateur music producers. The company’s music maker generation 6 can be used to create compositions of up to 48 tracks, and a deluxe version can handle up to 64 tracks. The programme, which retails for about 50 dollars for the standard version, includes a multimedia library with around 2000 audio samples (2700 in the deluxe version), as well as 600 video snippets which can be combined with the tracks. Today’s products prove that today’s music-making software offers composers a level of sophistication formerly found only in expensive studios. While novices may find today’s packages intimidating, music veterans should feel right at home in no time at all. (DPA) |
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